Something More Evil
by bcbdrums
Summary: "Turn the launch system off! It can't be safe to have it on this long," Shego said. Drakken waved a hand carelessly. "Don't be silly, Shego. I have calculated every possible variable—" Shego's gasp stopped him, and he looked to the top of the silo where a white vapor was creeping out from the missile tops. "What's that?" she asked. He bit his lip, and she knew they were in trouble.


**_A/N: This is an AU set during the main canon, any time. Written for duck-duck-duck-moose on Tumblr. A prequel to one of her drabbles there, written with permission._**

**_Here's the inspiration. Read hers first! It's much, much better that way! Link with many spaces and a deliberate obvious typo; fix the spaces and obvious typo and it works: duck-duck-duck-moose. tumblr .kom/ post/185689647197/why-do-you-hate-me-so-much-benjimators _**

**_This is also posted on AO3 and Tumblr. This version is most-edited, so it is best. I'm posting it here because the fandom seems more active on this site._**

**_ The rating is for mild horror and...heart-wrenching emotion? No spoilers, sorry.  
_**

* * *

"...and if you don't surrender to my immediate rule, your most precious landmarks will be dust in a mere twenty minutes!" Drakken declared confidently.

Behind the camera Shego rolled her eyes at him. But inside she felt the beginning rush of excitement. This plan might actually work.

"I said cut! Aren't you listening?"

"Sheesh, I cut already."

"Good! Now get to editing the introductions to each country while I set the timing for each missile."

Drakken had already turned his back to her and was back at the enormous missile launch silo, humming away happily as he worked.

Shego shrugged and took the digital camera to the small desk he'd set up for her and began transferring the footage. She had lost count of how many introductions he had recorded somewhere after thirty, and now as she looked at the missile silo close up she began to feel her internal danger radar going off.

There were well over thirty infra-red homing missiles in very close proximity, oriented vertically to fire out of the dormant volcano's caldera (their current lair) with the exhaust going down the hollow vent. A massive launching and coolant system had been constructed to suspend the missiles over the vent, with a control console located far too close to the vent's opening in Shego's opinion.

She glanced at the computer screen. Three percent transferred.

"Hey, Dr. D.," she called, but her voice was lost as he powered up the launching system. Shego shot up out of her chair and raced towards him.

"Hey! Dr. D.!"

"Nyaha! It's working!" he cried, raising his fists triumphantly.

"Dr. D., it's going to take hours before the videos are ready to broadcast. Turn that thing off!"

"What!? Hours! That's completely unacceptable, Shego."

Shego set her hands on her hips. "Yeah, well it's either that or we broadcast the blanket recording."

"Nghh, we talked about this!" he faced her with clenched fists and an impatient frown. "If we address each country individually they'll be much more afraid of losing their precious national treasures and submit to my rule!"

Shego smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand and shook her head. "I know, it was _my_ idea! _You_ wanted to do just one recording. But after I explained that this was better, you agreed. So turn off the launcher and wait, or we go back to your original idea."

Drakken spluttered a string of incoherent syllables before throwing his head back in anger. "All right! We'll wait for the individual videos!"

Shego turned to go back to the desk. "You mean _you'll_ wait, while I work..." she muttered.

"What was that?" Drakken asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Shego said, waving her hand in dismissal and flopping back into the chair. Seven percent transferred. She sighed.

A minute passed and she realized that the rumbling from the missile silo hadn't stopped, and she swiveled around in the chair to look.

"What are you doing, Doc?" she shouted over the noise.

"Hm? Just programming the last coordinates," he said distractedly.

"You can do that while the launch system is off!"

"What?" he called, not fully listening.

"I said turn the launch system off! It can't be safe to have it on this long with that many missiles," she said, approaching him again.

Drakken turned around, waving a hand carelessly. "Don't be silly, Shego. I have calculated every possible variable concerning this—"

Shego's gasp stopped him, and he followed her gaze to the top of the silo where a white vapor was creeping out from the nose of each missile and falling rapidly down, like a waterfall made of clouds.

"What's that?" Shego asked nervously.

She watched Drakken bite his lip, and knew they were in trouble.

"Dr. D.!"

"It's the coolant for the homing devices," he said, his voice lacking its typical buoyancy.

...Serious trouble.

"How can I help?" she said, leaping to his side.

"I have to find out what's causing the leak and stop it," he said, his eyes not leaving the computer screen as he cycled through various controls.

"Rrgh! I _told_ you to turn this thing off!"

"Shut up!" Drakken snapped, and Shego took a step back in shock before her eyes narrowed.

"Fine!" she said, turning on her heel and marching back to her tiny computer. "See if I film thirty-seven evil threats for you ever again."

"You don't understand," he called to her. "It's..."

His voice sounded strangled and she whirled around to see him grabbing his throat, eyes wide as he fell to his knees. Most of the white clouds were falling below the missiles into the volcano's vent, but others had slid along the silo's support beams and were now pooled at Drakken's feet.

"Liquid...nitrogen..." he gasped, and then fell forward, his body disappearing beneath the clouds.

"Dr. D.!" Shego cried as she rushed forward. An icy cold hit her ankles as she entered the clouds, and then her fingers as she reached down and lifted her boss up out of the ominous mist.

As she drew her next breath she choked, not getting enough oxygen. Throwing Drakken over her shoulder she started back toward her desk and safety but found herself on her knees a moment later, gasping for air.

With an adrenaline-fueled heave, she tossed Drakken's body away from the white poison and into the clear air just as her vision began to swim. She gasped for breath again, but even as her lungs filled there was no life-giving oxygen within them. Her hands hit the ground, and then her chest as she struggled to breathe. The cold slammed into her like a brick wall and she writhed away from it, knowing she had to get up. Her vision sparkled away into blackness as she twisted within a void, opening her lips in an attempt to get air once more.

She _had_ to get up...

* * *

Drakken heard a low, rumbling sound. He realized his eyes were closed, and he opened them. First he saw the dark stone of the volcanic cave. Beyond was the missile silo, trembling from the stress it was never meant to be put under by continuous operation.

Each missile was in its place, and atop them all were the tell-tale traces of a vapor that disappeared into the surrounding air even as it seeped between the metal seams.

Drakken jumped to his feet, and then bent over holding his head in his hands as his vision swam.

"Shego!" he called instinctively, remembering only his panic over the coolant leak and wondering what exactly had happened.

As the spinning of the room calmed he cautiously straightened up and took in the rest of the lair. And then he saw her.

"Shego!" he gasped, rushing forward to where his sidekick lay collapsed near the missile control console, her cheek on the ground and one arm outstretched as if reaching for something. Her other limbs were bent and her body twisted as if she was in pain, and her green skin was unnaturally pale.

Her hair, spread all around her, held a glossy white sheen. Looking closer Drakken saw the same sheen on her long eyelashes, standing out beneath her closed eyes. He curiously reached forward and touched her hair and the sheen instantly disappeared beneath his fingers. He gasped aloud as he realized it was frost.

Drakken's heart pounded in his chest as he set two fingers beneath her chin, feeling for a pulse. His breath caught as even through his gloves he felt the icy coldness of her skin. There was no movement beneath his fingers, a tell-tale absence that caused a lump to form in his throat.

"Shego..." he repeated desperately, his voice catching as he stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. Her skin was still soft.

He fell back on his rear as a choked sob escaped his throat. He stared helplessly at her still form.

She had saved him, somehow. It was the only explanation for why he was alive and she was... She...was...

"Oh, Shego. I'm sorry!" he cried, tears streaking down his cheeks as he gathered her lifeless body into his arms. "You were right. You were always right, about everything. And now you're gone and—"

His voice broke, and he buried his face in her cold hair as he released his anguish in uncontrolled cries. His wails and shrieks reverberated against the gray walls of the cavern and merged with the rumbling of the still-running missile silo.

After several minutes he lifted his eyes and looked down at her still face.

It wasn't fair.

An anger began building in him as his new reality forced itself on him with each passing second of feeling the limp weight in his arms.

Shego was dead. She was dead!

The rage manifested on his face in a look of fury that would have sent even Kim Possible running for cover, and he looked around wildly for something upon which to unleash his anger. And when his eyes fell upon the perfect thing he began humming an evil rhythm.

_"A villain always needs a backup plan, Shego,"_ he had told her cockily.

_"Yeah, like you'd ever have the guts to do that,"_ she had responded.

Still clutching Shego's body, Drakken scooted on his rear toward his prize like a man possessed, his eyes unblinking as he got closer and closer.

"Don't have the guts, do I? Well I'll show you! I'll show everyone!"

Drakken slammed his fist down on a large red button on the console, and the rumbling from the silo increased. He cradled Shego's body protectively and turned away rapidly as all of the missiles launched out of the volcano at once.

The scorching heat eliminated whatever cold remained in the cavern from the liquid nitrogen and Drakken grit his teeth against the pain of it. As quickly as it had begun it was over, but Drakken knew the ringing in his ears would last for several minutes.

"There!" he said decisively, and far too loudly as soon as the echo of the missiles had ceased. He carefully lay Shego down on her back, smoothing out her hair around her and then resting her hands across her middle. "I'm causing worldwide terror and destruction without any warning, without even making a demand! You see how evil I can be?"

He stared down at Shego's lifeless form as if waiting for a response. Of course, there was none.

"And...and I won't stop there! I'll do something even _more_ evil!" he said, standing to his feet and beginning to pace back and forth in front of the green woman's body.

"I'll do something so evil that I won't even be on any country's wanted list. I'll be a 'kill on sight' type of villain!"

He looked down again at the body at his feet. Still, there was no response.

He blinked once, then twice, and slowly sank to his knees, his eyes never leaving her face. He clenched his fists at his sides as tears began filling his eyes anew.

"I'll be more evil. I promise. I...I _have_ to be..." he said just before dissolving into sobs once again.

He _had_ to. Surely there was something more evil he could do. There _had_ to be something more evil in the world...

...than killing his friend.

* * *

**_A/N: SPOILERS SPOILERS! Don't read unless you've read the fic! ...Okay then. For clarification, she didn't freeze to death. She asphyxiated in the nitrogen. Yes it's real, I did the research; sadly, it's happened IRL._**


End file.
